Sen. Ted Cruz

In 2013, after the Kingwood TEA Party had received confirmation that Sen. Ted Cruz was going to visit our group in August, we began promoting his visit as our First Freedom Rally.

In a short amount of time, our Freedom Rally grew to include then TX AG Greg Abbott and two other gubernatorial candidates, nearly every state-wide candidate for office, and a host of local candidates, though only Sen. Cruz and General Abbott were slated to speak.

About 1 week before the event & 700 RSVP’s later:

I received a call from one of Ted’s top staff members informing me that Ted had to cancel his appearance at our event. Turns out that a major national anti-ObamaCare tour was kicking off the night of our event in Dallas and Sen. Cruz had to be there.

After catching my breath and with my heart in my throat, I told his staffer that ok, this is what we elected him to do, and had to hang up and go to work.

My husband then spoke with the same gentleman from the Senator’s office after I left for work that morning, and explained how our event had grown from just the Senator speaking into a large Freedom Rally. Ted’s staffer said he would share the information with the powers that be, but couldn’t promise anything.

The next call came the following morning. When Ted had heard from his staff what was going on with our event, we were told he looked them in the eye and said, “Where have we agreed to be that evening?”

They then made some calls with the organizers of the anti-ObamaCare tour, and were able to get their cooperation. They changed all their plans and hotel reservations for this major national event to the next night.

Sen. Ted Cruz honored his commitment to us and then honored his commitment to fight
the implementation of ObamaCare!

Sen. Cruz didn’t have to do this, but this is who he is. It has been our experience that Ted does everything possible to honor his word even for a small group of his supporters in Texas over a huge national tour.

We follow Sen. Cruz’s issues, bills, and career closely. We were informed of his poison pill amendments as they happened, we supported him. We tweeted throughout his ObamaCare filibuster, and watch all his videos. He has gone to Washington to be our voice and to bring the issues Texans care about onto the national stage.

Sen. Ted Cruz is a brilliant man of his word who cares deeply about Texas, our Nation, our freedoms, and our Constitution. He will fight for us to rein in the regulatory state spending us into oblivion, seal our borders, and get the Federal government out of the way so businesses can thrive, hiring more employees and improving the economy.

More importantly, we trust Sen. Cruz to nominate Supreme Court Justices who will respect our Constitution and the freedoms it created a limited government to protect.

Kingwood TEA Party is honored to support
Sen. Ted Cruz for President of the United States.

Bill would end the ability of DHS to use legal immigration service fees to fund amnesty

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) today introduced the Immigration Slush Fund Elimination Act to prohibit the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from using the fees it collects for the provision of legal immigration services to fund amnesty. The bill would also restore congressional authority over the appropriations process and refocus the department on its national security mission.

“America has always been a land of refuge and opportunity for those seeking freedom, and we should champion legal immigration,” said Sen. Cruz. “Ronald Reagan referred to legal immigrants, immigrants like my father, as Americans by choice. The federal government should not be in the business of looting the wallets of those who followed the law and came here legally to fund the President’s illegal and unconstitutional amnesty. This bill will cut off DHS’s credit card and put Congress back in charge of funding the agencies responsible for immigration.”

End DHS’s ability to fund lawlessness.
The Obama Administration’s DHS, via U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), has admitted it uses so-called offsetting accounts (which function like agency checking accounts) to take the fees it charges legal immigrants and use them to fund amnesty and other activities that Congress has not authorized. In recent congressional testimony, USCIS Chief Financial Officer Joseph Moore confirmed that USCIS can access more than $1 billion in fee-based funding, and that it used those funds to pay for an unauthorized amnesty processing center in Arlington, Va. Eliminating the ability of USCIS to use the money it collects to support amnesty and other unauthorized activities is a first step toward reining in the executive branch’s lawless approach to immigration.

Restore congressional authority over DHS and immigration issues.By eliminating the offsetting accounts under USCIS’s control, Congress would end USCIS’s ability to self-fund. This would reduce USCIS’s ability to ignore the people’s representatives and restore respect for the Constitution’s separation of powers and the legislative power of the purse.

Eliminate DHS’s profit incentive, which distracts from the agency’s core national security mission. Right now, USCIS has an incentive to process as many immigration benefits as possible, without regard to consequences. While legal immigration should be celebrated and supported, the agency’s desire to collect more fee-based revenue – along with its unrestricted ability to keep and use those fees – arguably interferes with USCIS’s objective review of application processing. Removing the focus on fees and revenue will once again focus USCIS on its core responsibilities, including protecting our national security and preventing immigration benefit fraud.

Senator Cruz entirely understands the widespread suspicion of the President.Nobody has been more vocal in pointing out the President’s lawlessness or more passionate about fighting his usurpation of congressional authority.

Senator Cruz would not and will not give President Obama one more inch of unrestricted power.

There have been a lot of questions and concerns about the ongoing Pacific trade negotiations. Many of those concerns, fueled by the media, stem from confusion about Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) and the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Let’s unpack the issues one by one.

What are TPA and TPP?TPA stands for Trade Promotion Authority, also known as “fast track.”TPA is a process by which trade agreements are approved by Congress. Through TPA, Congress sets out up-front objectives for the Executive branch to achieve in free trade negotiations; in exchange for following those objectives, Congress agrees to hold an up-or-down vote on trade agreements without amendments. For the past 80 years, it has proven virtually impossible to negotiate free-trade agreements without the fast-track process.

TPP stands for Trans-Pacific Partnership. TPP is a specific trade agreement currently being negotiated by the United States and 11 other countries, including Canada, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. China is not a negotiating partner. There is no final language on TPP because negotiations are still ongoing and have been since late 2009. Neither the Senate nor the House has voted yet on the TPP. There will be no vote on TPP until the negotiations are over and the final agreement is sent to Congress.

Some Key Facts:

▪ Neither the Senate nor the House has voted yet on the TPP.▪ Congress is the only entity that can make U.S. law and nothing about TPP or TPA could change that.▪ TPA gives the Congress more control up-front over free trade agreements.▪ TPA mandates transparency by requiring all trade agreements (including TPP) to be made public for at least 60 days before the Congress can act on them.

Does TPA give up the Senate’s treaty power?No. Under the Constitution, there are two ways to make binding law:

1. through a treaty, ratified by two-thirds of the Senate, or
2. through legislation passed by a majority of both Houses of Congress.

TPA employs the second constitutional path, as trade bills always have done. It has long been recognized that the Constitution’s Origination Clause applies to trade bills, requiring the House of Representatives’ involvement.

Does the United States give up Sovereignty by entering into TPP?
No. Nothing in the agreement forces Congress to change any law. TPA explicitly provides that nothing in any trade agreement can change U.S. law. Congress is the only entity that can make U.S. law, and Congress is the only entity that can change U.S. law. Nothing about TPP or TPA could change that.

Does Senator Ted Cruz support TPP?
Senator Cruz has not taken a position either in favor or against TPP. He will wait until the agreement is finalized and he has a chance to study it carefully to ensure that the agreement will open more markets to American-made products, create jobs, and grow our economy. Senator Cruz has dedicated his professional career to defending U.S. sovereignty and the U.S. Constitution. He will not support any trade agreement that would diminish or undermine either.

Does Senator Ted Cruz support TPA?
Yes. Senator Cruz voted in favor of TPA earlier this year because it breaks the logjam that is preventing the U.S. from entering into trade deals that are good for American workers, American businesses, and our economy. Ronald Reagan emphatically supported free trade, and Senator Cruz does as well. He ran for Senate promising to support free trade, and he is honoring that commitment to the voters.

Free trade helps American farmers, ranchers, and manufacturers; indeed, one in five American jobs depends on trade, in Texas alone 3 million jobs depend on trade. When we open up foreign markets, we create American jobs.

TPA also strengthens Congress’ hand in trade negotiations, and provides transparency by making the agreement (including TPP) public for at least 60 days before the Congress can act on any final agreement. Without TPA, there is no such transparency, and the Congress’ role in trade agreements is weaker.

Is TPA Constitutional?
TPA and similar trade authority has been upheld by the Supreme Court as constitutional for more than 100 years.

Does TPA give the President more authority?No. TPA ensures that Congress has the ability to set the objectives up-front for free trade agreements.

Trade Promotion Authority has been used to reduce trade barriers since FDR. When Harry Reid took over the Senate, he killed it. History demonstrates that it is almost impossible to negotiate a free-trade agreement without TPA. Right now without TPA, America is unable to negotiate free-trade agreements, putting the United States at a disadvantage to China, which is taking the lead world-wide. It is not in America’s interests to have China writing the rules of international trade.

Moreover, Obama is going to be president for just 18 more months.TPA is six-year legislation. If we want the next president (hopefully a Republican) to be able to negotiate free-trade agreements to restart our economy and create jobs here at home then we must reinstate TPA. With a Republican president in office, Senate Democrats would almost certainly vote party-line to block TPA, so now is the only realistic chance.

How can Senator Cruz trust Obama?
He doesn’t. Not at all. No part of Senator Cruz’s support for TPA was based on trusting Obama. However, under TPA, every trade deal is still subject to approval by Congress. If the Obama Administration tries to do something terrible in a trade agreement, Congress can vote it down. And most congressional Democrats will always vote no—because union bosses oppose free trade, so do most Democrats—which means a handful of conservative congressional Republicans have the votes to kill any bad deal. That’s a serious check on presidential power.

Isn’t TPP a “living agreement”?
That particular phrase—a foolish and misleading way to put it—is found in the “summary” portion of one particular section of the draft agreement. That section allows member nations to amend the agreement in the future, expressly subject to the approval of their governments. Thus, if some amendment were proposed in the future, Congress would have to approve it before it went into effect.

But isn’t TPA a secret agreement?
No, it is not. The full text of TPA (fast track) is public. What the Senate just voted for was TPA, not TPP.

Right now, the text of TPP is classified. That is a mistake. Senator Cruz has vigorously called on the Obama administration to make the full text of TPP open to the public immediately. The text being hidden naturally only fuels concerns about what might be in it. Senator Cruz has read the current draft of TPP, and it should be made public now.

Critically, under TPA, TPP cannot be voted on until after the text has been public for 60 days. Therefore, everyone will be able to read it long before it comes up for a vote.

Couldn’t Obama use a trade agreement to grant amnesty to illegal immigrants?No. There is one section of TPP that concerns immigration, but it affects only foreign nations—the United States has explicitly declined to sign on to that section.

Two Republican Senators (Sen. Lindsey Graham and Sen. Rand Paul) blocked the Senate’s consideration of that amendment, but the House of Representatives has agreed to include that language in the final text of the trade legislation. Thus, assuming the House honors that public commitment, federal law will explicitly prohibit any trade deal from impacting immigration.

And, regardless, no trade agreement can change U.S. law; only Congress can change U.S. law.

Why Sen. Ted Cruz Supports the Trade Promotion Agreement (TPA)

I asked Sen. Cruz about the Trade Promotion Agreement and his support of it last night, Wed., 05/27/2015, in Kingwood. First, he reminded me that he has always supported free markets and increasing job opportunities for all Americans. Though the President has made the bad decision to classify the agreement, Sen. Cruz explained that this bill will be in force for the next 6 years, of which Pres. Obama will be in office only 19 more months. Our next President like those in the last century, will certainly need this authority to help jump-start economic prosperity for all Americans.

Below are highlights from the Op-Ed Sen. Cruz co-authored with Rep. Paul Ryan explaining why they support the Trade-Promotion Agreement, Paul Ryan and Ted Cruz: Putting Congress in Charge on Trade:

One in five American jobs depends on trade, and that share is only going to grow. Ninety-six percent of the world’s customers are outside the U.S. To create more jobs here, America needs to sell more goods and services over there.

Thanks to lower duties on imports, the average American family saves $13,600 a year, according to a study by HSBC. But other countries put up trade barriers that drive up prices for U.S. goods and services and make it hard to sell them there.

If you add up all 20 countries that the U.S. has a trade agreement with, American manufacturers run a $50 billion trade surplus with them.

…not all countries have a trade agreement with the U.S.; American manufacturers run a $500 billion trade deficit with those nations.

That is why the U.S. needs effective trade agreements to lay down fair and strong rules that level the playing field. Without such rules, America’s trading partners will keep stacking the deck against job creators in this country. But Congress can’t just take the administration’s word that it will drive a hard bargain. We have to hold it accountable, and that is what trade-promotion authority will help do.

First, it must pursue nearly 150 specific negotiating objectives, like beefing up protections for U.S. intellectual property or eliminating kickbacks for government-owned firms.

…the administration must consult regularly with Congress and meet high transparency standards.

…before anything becomes law, Congress gets the final say. The Constitution vests all legislative power in Congress. So TPA makes it clear that Congress—and only Congress—can change U.S. law. If the administration meets all the requirements, Congress will give the agreement an up-or-down vote.

Under the Trade Promotion Agreement, any member of Congress will be able to read the negotiating text. Any member will be able to get a briefing from the U.S. trade representative’s office on the status of the negotiations—at any time. Any member will get to be a part of negotiating rounds.

And most important, TPA will require the administration to post the full text of the agreement at least 60 days before completing the deal, so the American people can read it themselves.

MUST WATCH – worth the time to see Rubio, Lee, And Cruz take on Kaine, Durbin, and McCain. Just found this posted by Sen. Ted Cruz. 33 minute video putting the Debt Ceiling Debate in the Senate in context. John McCain is old, out of touch, and no longer thinking clearly. He is working with the democrats. Should he be reelected, it should be as democrat.

Sen. Ted Cruz Joins in Objecting to the Senate Using Procedural Tricks to Raise Debt Ceiling

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